What You Need to Grow Indoors: The Kit Checklist
To grow indoors you need a light-tight space, a light, a way to move the air, something for the roots to grow in and a feed to go with it. This checklist names a good first buy for each from our range, and the Growers' Guide that helps you choose it. Once the parts are home, our grow tent setup guide shows how to put them together.
The kit checklist
| What you need | A good first buy | Our guide to choosing it |
|---|---|---|
| Grow tent | Budbox Lite 100cm x 100cm x 200cm for around two to four plants; other Budbox Lite sizes for smaller or bigger spaces | What size grow tent? |
| Grow light | Maxibright Varidrive 360W LED: dimmable, covers 0.8 x 0.8 to 1.2 x 1.2 m | LED wattage by tent size |
| Extraction fan and carbon filter | Air EC Inline Fans (speed controller included) with a Rhino Hobby Filter | Fan and carbon filter size |
| Ducting and clips | Combi ducting, 5 or 10 m, and Ducting Clips | Grow tent setup, Step 3 |
| Hangers | Rope Ratchets for the fan and filter; Easy-Rolls (pair) for the light | Grow tent setup, Step 2 |
| Timer | Time-R Digital Timer for one LED light; Maxiswitch Quad Timer for up to four | Grow tent setup, Step 4 |
| Thermometer-hygrometer | ThermoPro TP358: records the 24-hour highs and lows | Grow tent humidity |
| Clip fan | Maxifan Clip Fan 200mm: clips to a pole | Grow tent setup, Step 3 |
| Pots | Square to Round Pots for seedlings, then Round Pots or Fabric Plant Pots, each on a saucer | Fabric, Air-Pot or plastic pots? |
| Growing medium | Biobizz Light Mix (soil) or Canna Coco Professional Plus (coco) | Which potting soil; coco coir guide |
| Feed | Biobizz Grow and Biobizz Bloom (soil); Canna Coco (coco) | Which nutrients? |
| pH kit | NutSystems pH Test Kits (Wide Spectrum) or Bluelab pH Pen, with Growth Technology pH Down and Growth Technology pH Up | pH and EC meters |
Tent, light and air
Start with the tent, because the light, fan and filter all follow from it. Our tent size guide says to leave 20-30 cm around it for the fan, ducting and zips.
Choose a dimmable LED, so one light does the whole cycle. Our LED wattage guide allows 150-250 W per square metre for vegetative growth and 300-500 W for flowering, and lists the Varidrive 360W for a 1 m tent.
Our fan and filter guide works out about 150 m³/h for a 100 x 100 x 200 cm tent (one air change a minute plus about 25 per cent), with a filter rated at or above the fan. The tent, light, fan, filter and ducting above are the parts of our 360W LED Grow Tent Kit, which uses a Rhino Hobby 100 x 300 mm filter and 100 mm ducting. A clip fan inside keeps the leaves moving gently.
Timer and thermometer-hygrometer
Only the light needs a timer; the fans run day and night. Check the timer is rated for your light: Step 4 of our setup guide explains contactors.
Read the thermometer-hygrometer at plant height, in the light and in the dark. As a rule of thumb, aim for 22-26°C and 55-70% humidity in vegetative growth, and 20-25°C and 40-55% in flowering: the ranges in our airflow, temperature and humidity guide.
Soil, coco or hydroponics?
Soil is the most forgiving, and good soil is the easiest place to begin. Biobizz Light Mix leaves the feeding to you: its page says to begin once the plants are established. Our potting soil guide compares the soils we sell.
Coco coir holds water and air together but has almost no food in it, so it needs a feed made for coco. Canna Coco Professional Plus comes rinsed and buffered, its page says, and our coco coir guide explains why that matters.
Hydroponics grows plants without soil, feeding the roots from a tank of nutrient solution, so there is more to check: pH, EC, water temperature and the tank. For a first system, our hydroponics page suggests a small NFT tank such as the GT205i (its page calls it an ideal introduction to hydroponics) or an Autopot in soil or coco: see our Autopot guide.
Pots, feed and pH
Pots. Plastic stays wet longer, which is easier to manage when you hand water; fabric pots and Air-Pots air-prune the roots for a better root ball but dry faster, so need watering more often, our pots guide says. Our tent size guide puts four to six plants in 8-12 litre pots on a square metre, or two to four in 15-25 litre pots.
Feed. Buy the feed for your medium. Biobizz Grow (vegetative growth) and Biobizz Bloom (flowering and fruiting) are organic feeds for soil. Canna Coco is a two-part A & B feed made for coco; its page says never to mix the neat A and B together. Our Biobizz feed chart and Canna Coco feed chart give the doses.
pH. A feed with everything in it can still leave a plant short if the pH is off. The right pH depends on the medium: the makers' targets in our pH guide run from 5.7 to 6.5. The NutSystems kit is a colour test: take the Wide Spectrum version (4.0-10.0), which covers them all. A pen also needs pH Pen Calibration Fluid and pH Probe Storage Solution 300ml. Adjust a few drops at a time with Growth Technology pH Down or pH Up: follow the label and never mix the two.
What to buy first
- The tent that fits the room.
- The light for that tent.
- Fan, filter and ducting, then hangers, a clip fan, timer and thermometer-hygrometer.
- Pots, medium, feed and a pH kit.
- A test run: switch everything on for a day and a night before the plants go in.
Start small, with one or two plants, and keep a grow journal. Don't overwater: it is one of the most common beginner mistakes. In soil, growers commonly wait until the pot feels light before watering again.
Quick answers
What equipment do I need to grow indoors?
Everything in the checklist above: tent, light, air, hangers, timer and thermometer-hygrometer, then pots, a medium, its feed and a pH kit.
Is there a kit that has everything?
Nearly. Our four grow tent kits each come with a Budbox Lite tent, LED lighting, Air EC fan, Rhino Hobby filter, 5 m of combi ducting, three clips and a timer: the 360W LED Grow Tent Kit (1.0 x 1.0 m), the 720W LED Grow Tent Kit (1.2 x 1.2 m), the 2x 720W LED Grow Tent Kit (1.2 x 2.4 m) and the 4x 720W LED Grow Tent Kit (2.4 x 2.4 m). They leave out hangers, a clip fan and a thermometer-hygrometer. For the plants, the 4-Pot Soil & Nutrient Bundle has four 12 L fabric pots with saucers, 50 L of Plagron Lightmix Soil and Intense Dirt feeds; there are 8- and 16-pot soil and coco bundles too.
How many hours of light do indoor plants need?
Indoors, growers commonly give seedlings and vegetative growth 18 hours of light and 6 of dark (see sowing seeds indoors). Short-day plants, which flower as the nights lengthen, usually go on 12 hours of light and 12 of dark to flower: see our growers' glossary.
More Growers' Guides
- Grow tent setup, step by step
- What size grow tent?
- Grow tent intake and ventilation
- Fan and carbon filter size
- Hydroponics: the systems explained
Not sure what you need? Call the shop on 0117 971 3000 or pop in to the Bristol store and we'll help you pick.